PRIŠTINA — The international community wants a special tribunal to be set up to deal with the crimes committed by the now disbanded ethnic Albanian KLA.

(Beta, file)

The reason is a lack of functional witness protection system in Kosovo, writes Priština-based Albanian language daily Koha Ditore.
„That is precisely why European officials are insisting on the establishment of a tribunal that would deal with findings about war crimes in Kosovo, recorded in Dick Marty’s report,“ the newspaper writes, citing sources in the Kosovo government.

„Protected witnesses have mostly been threatened or attacked. One such witness was found dead in Germany. An investigation is under way in the case of a protected witness whose identity was revealed by the Kosovo public broadcaster RTS,“ the article noted.

The daily also recalled that Council of Europe rapporteur Dick Marty three years ago expressed his fears regarding witness protection. He did so in the context of accusations that the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was involved in kidnapping Serbs and selling their organs in the international black market.

Marty also lacked faith in „the two international missions deployed in Kosovo after the conflict,“ the article said, and added that he „at the time stated he would not give any sensitive information about the identity of witnesses and their statements until he had absolute guarantees that the information would remain confidential.“

In his report on human organ trafficking, Marty pointed out to the inability of UNMIK and EULEX to develop a mechanism to conduct sensitive investigations that would protect witnesses and prevent the leaking of data, writes the daily, and adds that these accusations are being dealt with by „a special investigative task force set up by the Council of the EU“ in 2011.